


How Not to Keep a Secret

by certain_as_the_sun



Series: How to Train Your God of Mischief [7]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hiccup is Awful at Keeping Secrets, Loki is Toothless, Stoick Jumps to Conclusions, The Avengers (2012) Never Happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-06-08 22:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6875572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certain_as_the_sun/pseuds/certain_as_the_sun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Hiccup's parents learn who Toothless really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Not to Keep a Secret

**Author's Note:**

> The first part takes place after _Boredom and Its Consequences_ and the second part takes place after _Dead Leaves and Fleeting Skies_.
> 
> It's never mentioned in the HTTYD film if Hiccup and Snotlout are related, but since they are in the books I'm assuming they are in the film too.
> 
> Valka is a surprisingly hard character to write, which is why the second part is shorter than the first one.

Stoick first suspected something odd was happening in Berk after what had come to be known as the Flying Furniture Incident. The other strange incidents - Astrid suddenly speaking some bizarre incomprehensible language, clothes turning into birds, the entire village being forced to drink nothing but water for a day (and that one incident angered everyone more than any of the others) - you could find explanations for all those. Improbable explanations, in most cases, but still. That one was different. No matter how you tried to explain it away, there was simply no way it could be anything but supernatural. And then, less than a week later, Snotlout suddenly started acting like a toad. They had to lock him up in a barn to stop him hopping around the village and knocking over everything in his path. It took a full day for him to return to normal. Stoick would be the first to admit that his nephew wasn't the most intelligent Berkian, but that behaviour was just bizarre.

Oddly enough, Hiccup kept shooting angry looks at Toothless through the entire ordeal.

Stoick thought over the situation frequently, but never came up with any solution beyond "someone out there doesn't like us". Until the day he came home early, that is.

It had been a very stressful day. He'd had to sort out a dispute between two neighbours whose dragons had had... eggs? dragonlings? offspring? Whatever the word for young dragons, each of the parents' owners insisted these ones belonged to them. They had nearly come to blows by the time Stoick arrived to sort it out, and after that he went home, leaving Spitelout to deal with any more crises that arose.

The moment he set foot in his house, he knew there was someone else there. He couldn't see or hear anyone, but he _knew_ he wasn't alone. It couldn't be Hiccup; the house was too quiet. It couldn't be someone come to ask his help with some problem; they would have waited outside. So he could only assume that the intruder was hostile. He drew his sword and began making a very quiet search of the house.

He found the intruder in Hiccup's room. It was a young man he'd never seen before, dressed in very strange clothes, and sound asleep on top of Hiccup's bed. Stoick gaped. At first he couldn't believe his eyes. Then, as he realised that yes, this was real, rage took over. How dare this stranger barge into _his_ house and sleep in _his son's_ bed?

He opened his mouth. What he might have said will never be known, for the front door flew open and Hiccup arrived home before he could speak. The boy chattered away to himself as he climbed the stairs. No, wait; he wasn't talking to _himself_ ; he was talking to _someone else_...

"I still think what you did to Snotlout was horrible, and you broke your promise, even if you try to say you didn't, but he- Dad!" Hiccup squawked, spotting Stoick for the first time. His eyes darted from his father to the intruder, who was starting to wake up, and he paled. "Er... Hi, Dad! You're home early today, I thought you'd be later so I was going to go flying with L - I mean, _Toothless_ , flying with Toothless, and-"

"Hiccup," said the intruder, who was now fully awake and glaring at the boy, "shut up."

Hiccup shut up. He looked like he'd rather fight the Red Death again than stay in the house for another minute.

Stoick stared at the intruder. The intruder gazed back, looking remarkably unconcerned.

"Hiccup," Stoick said slowly, "who is this, where did he come from, and WHAT IN ODIN'S NAME IS HE DOING IN MY HOUSE?!"

"Yes, Hiccup," the intruder agreed, grinning, "why don't you introduce me?"

The boy glared at him, then gave his father a pitiful attempt at an innocent smile. "I was going to tell you, I just couldn't think of how... Could you please put the sword away?"

"Not until you tell me who this is."

"...Right. Well, then, um... Dad, this is Loki, uh, _the_ Loki, Loki the God of Lies... also called Toothless."

Stoick looked at the intruder, then back at Hiccup. "Toothless is a dragon. This is obviously a human. And as for this rubbish about him being a god-"

The intruder snorted. "I assure you, I am Toothless and I am not a human. I am Loki of Asgard, and for more than two years now I have lived on Midgard, primarily in the form of a dragon. But I see you are not convinced; allow me to prove it to you."

And just like that, the man who claimed to be Loki was gone, and Toothless was in his place. While Stoick was still trying to understand what he'd just seen, Toothless vanished and Loki reappeared.

"Do you believe us now?" he asked in a far too innocent tone.

Stoick tried to speak, but he couldn't find anything to say.

Hiccup looked extremely embarrassed. "I want to tell you, but you wouldn't have believed me and I didn't want to worry you-"

"Worry me?" Stoick repeated. " _Worry_ me? Coming home to find a strange man asleep in your bed worried me! The strange things that have happened in the village - which I suppose we have your friend to thank for - worried me! Finding out your pet dragon is either a god or a very convincing magician worried me! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?"

Hiccup winced. "I'm sorry, Dad," he said quietly. "I just didn't think."

Stoick turned to Loki. "And as for you, if you harm my son or anyone else in the village in any way, I will kill you whether you're a god or not!"

Loki inclined his head in acknowledgement. "I don't doubt you would."

 

* * *

  
  
After Stoick stormed downstairs, grumbling all the way, Hiccup glared at Loki.

"Why couldn't you have gone to sleep in your dragon form? And what were you doing sleeping in my bed, anyway? You have your own!"

"Sometimes I grow tired of being a dragon all day," Loki said. "Your bed is more comfortable for my Æsir form than mine; I did not foresee your father returning early."

"Well, thanks to you Dad isn't happy with either of us. I didn't want him to find out like this!"

"Did you want him to find out at all?"

Hiccup looked at him, surprised. "Of course, just not right now." He suddenly felt suspicious. "Did you plan this?"

Loki gave him a look of outraged innocence. "Me? Decide when your father met me? Of course not. But," he smiled, and there was a hint of bitterness in his smile, "it's best for members of a family to be honest with each other, don't you think?"

 

* * *

 

Hiccup had learned from the disaster that was Loki's introduction to his father. As soon as the village had more or less returned to normal, he and Loki in dragon form went in search of his mother. They found her outside the town, just returning from flying with Cloudjumper.

"Uh, Mum, there's something I have to tell you," Hiccup said, suddenly wishing he'd rehearsed what he meant to say. "It's about Toothless. I know you think he's a dragon, but he's not actually a dragon at all, really, he's... You probably won't believe this, but he's actually Loki. _The_ Loki."

Valka looked alarmed. "Hiccup, are you all right?"

Loki switched from his dragon form to his Æsir one. "He is as well as can be expected, and he is not mad."

Valka stared at him for a moment. "Oh. I see. So this is what Astrid meant."

Hiccup blinked. "Astrid told you?"

"She said Toothless wasn't a normal dragon. Until now I thought she meant Night Furies didn't behave like other sorts of dragon."

"You seem to be taking this very calmly," Loki observed, staring at her through narrowed eyes.

Valka gazed back calmly. "If you wanted to harm my son, you would have by now. But," a warning note crept into her voice, "if you ever do, I'll kill you."

 

* * *

 

"Why do humans always assume the worst of me?" Loki complained later.

Hiccup paused in redrawing lines on his map to think of all the things he knew Loki had done in the last five years. Threatening Astrid in her own house, playing various pranks on Berk, teaming up with the twins in the interest of causing chaos, doing... _something_ to Drago...

"I've no idea," he said.


End file.
